Various applications of semiconductor devices such as e.g. integrated circuits (ICs) may involve using Quad Flat Packages (QFP's).
Such packages may include electrical contact leads at each of the four sides of the quadrilateral package.
Nowadays, various electronic systems e.g. in the automotive field may be available in different versions e.g. covering a range from low electronics content vehicles to premium vehicles, without relevant differences, other than e.g. the number of interfaces or the computational power level.
For instance, different platforms for a same application (e.g. passenger vehicle airbag systems) may be managed with different package sizes and different package layouts.
Also, these platforms may involve e.g. a dedicated external connectivity utility (ECU), with consequent package and ECU cost increase, due to their different targets, e.g. to address either low or high electronics content.
Certain solutions may involve using concentric footprints, suitable for different package body sizes.
This may facilitate ECU standardization and cost saving, to the detriment of flexibility in routing signals to the mounting substrate (e.g. a printed circuit board—PCB) and electro-magnetic compatibility—EMC performance.
Even these solutions may not exempt final customers from adopting dedicated ECUs for each platform for a same application, with each ECU designed with dedicated packages combination and different footprints.
On the other hand, final customers may be faced with the need of reducing the number of different ECUs to cover various types of vehicles and the PCB space used by each IC footprint.